High resolution photo

Hi,

Could someone help!!! lol

I would like to give my client a high resolution images, but everybody talk about sizing 2048 on the long side, but that won't be enough for a print and I just would like to give only one image sizing. What would be the best for even a large canvas as 24x36 at least, as good for a facebook or instagram at the same time, please?

Its so confusing!!! lol

Much appreciated

Lets say you want 300 pixels per inch (ppi) on a print. Inches times that gives you what you need. 24x36 would need an image of 7200x10800 pixels. Scared yet? In reality you may not need 300 ppi. Maybe half will do, so 3600x5400. OTOH, I never exceed 1500 on the long dimension for any display or small print purpose, usually more like 800. It isn't reasonable to have just one image size for all purposes, so you should lose that idea immediately.

 

If you use something like Qimage for printing, it will re-sample a smaller image up, with quite high quality, so you never see pixels, but it's still best to use the highest resolution you can. I recently had to create images for a very large print, far more than my antique camera could manage. I took a mosaic of images and stitched them together using Microsoft ICE, to create a super high resolution image that few cameras could manage on their own, much less on my budget.

Impossible to solve.

• If somebody wants tiny sized pictures: Deliver those.
  
• If you(!) want to shine on somebody's Instagram or Facebook: Sit down and compress; i.e. downsize, sharpen and save as a small file (JPEG mini?) every shot in question to those sites' exact needs.
  
• If you want to equip clients with printable images: Make your contracts accordingly; negotiate a chance to ditch high res images on your clients, by firmly wording your unwillingness to be their server farm.
  

If a client is really paying you and your quality gear, willing to let all resolution beyond 2048 pixels go forever: Learn to cope with that fact. If it happens just once per year, maybe have a drink. - If its once per week getting a therapist's help should be healthier. (Just "getting used to it" on your own is of course the best alternative-)

 

It is not up to us to understand customers, beyond what it takes to please them with our jobs.

 

Customers rule and we have to live. If their quirky ideas of dealing with you annoy you: Adjust your pricing till, you are happy.

One size doesn't fit all. Often clients have no idea what size image they NEED in order to print or reproduce...it is really critical for YOU, the photographer, to educate them and then, since they are paying for the image/s, to deliver. I am constantly amazed at how many photographers who hold themselves out to be professionals (my definition for those who make money off their images), who lack basic understanding of image and pixel dimensions, dpi printing, viewing distances for prints, fine art prints, posters and billboards and how to size images to met each of those needs - and I'm just an amateur.

Give whatever you get out of the camera. If you have 45MP camera give them that. They can make use of it for such a large print. If you have 6MP camera give them that and it can still yield good prints even at 24x30. It would take a little bit longer for you to send the large images for facebook or instagram but they can handle it and it would only take up room on their server.

Impossible to solve.

• If somebody wants tiny sized pictures: Deliver those.
  
• If you(!) want to shine on somebody's Instagram or Facebook: Sit down and compress; i.e. downsize, sharpen and save as a small file (JPEG mini?) every shot in question to those sites' exact needs.
  
• If you want to equip clients with printable images: Make your contracts accordingly; negotiate a chance to ditch high res images on your clients, by firmly wording your unwillingness to be their server farm.
  

If a client is really paying you and your quality gear, willing to let all resolution beyond 2048 pixels go forever: Learn to cope with that fact. If it happens just once per year, maybe have a drink. - If its once per week getting a therapist's help should be healthier. (Just "getting used to it" on your own is of course the best alternative-)

 

It is not up to us to understand customers, beyond what it takes to please them with our jobs.

 

Customers rule and we have to live. If their quirky ideas of dealing with you annoy you: Adjust your pricing till, you are happy.

 

 

Thank you for your answer, but do you think that even 2048 would be enough for a large print?

I am just trying everything possible because our photographer gave us only one file and the photos was good for facebook same as for a print but I cant ask her because I am taking photos same as her in a same city, so i am trying to figure it out myself, but everybody has a different opinion and its confusing for me. ;-)

Is tehre a happy medium which will look nice on a social media and a canvas?

Thank you for your answer.

Thank you for your answer, but do you think that even 2048 would be enough for a large print?

I am just trying everything possible because our photographer gave us only one file and the photos was good for facebook same as for a print but I cant ask her because I am taking photos same as her in a same city, so i am trying to figure it out myself, but everybody has a different opinion and its confusing for me. ;-)

Is tehre a happy medium which will look nice on a social media and a canvas?

Thank you for your answer.

2048 for the long side is not good for printing large.

The answer is no. There is no size that will look nice on social media (and not be crazy large) and will also make a nice large print.

2048 pixels could be 34cm offset printed 1:1 (I'd dare doing that with a BW file, but am not sure if the plate writer is ready to angle its screen dots that way. 4c printing that big should reveal a quality loss) or 24cm printed at the usual quality factor. Everything bigger is a billboard, meant to be seen from a distance, revealing pixelation or insanely huge screen dots up close.

"Photo quality" would end at 6.8".

 

Facebook: Try it yourself (I am not into that stuff): Postprocess the heck out of a file with a lot of details to get it into their required size and compare your result to what you could re-download from FB after offering your big original file to FB's automated downsizing. - I expect the amount of applied sharpening to vary.

Make up your mind how obvious differences are and if they matter for your business & reputation, at all. - Looks on social media are hard to judge. Very few people browse them on calibrated screens. To get a rough idea, I'd display the image on any suitable device I have, side by side.

Shutterfly says 2000x1600 is enough up to 20x30:

 

Shutterfly Help Center

 

Larger prints tend to be viewed from a greater distance, so you don't need as many

pixels for large prints as you might expect from smaller ones. Those are the minimum that they

recommend, I believe they will accept less, and at some point, reject the image.

 

I have done 16x20, I believe from 3000x2000 with good results.

 

As for FB, they accept a wide range of resolutions, but, as far as I know,

only store two. Default is pretty much screen resolution. When you upload,

you can select a higher resolution, which it will remember for later uploads.

It looks like in high quality mode, FB stores, and allows downloads at,

2048x1362. I am not sure what ordinary quality is, I always use high quality.

 

I believe you select it when you create the album, or maybe when you upload

images to it.

One size doesn't fit all. Often clients have no idea what size image they NEED in order to print or reproduce...it is really critical for YOU, the photographer, to educate them and then, since they are paying for the image/s, to deliver. I am constantly amazed at how many photographers who hold themselves out to be professionals (my definition for those who make money off their images), who lack basic understanding of image and pixel dimensions, dpi printing, viewing distances for prints, fine art prints, posters and billboards and how to size images to met each of those needs - and I'm just an amateur.

Thank you very much

Shutterfly says 2000x1600 is enough up to 20x30:

 

Shutterfly Help Center

 

Larger prints tend to be viewed from a greater distance, so you don't need as many

pixels for large prints as you might expect from smaller ones. Those are the minimum that they

recommend, I believe they will accept less, and at some point, reject the image.

 

I have done 16x20, I believe from 3000x2000 with good results.

 

As for FB, they accept a wide range of resolutions, but, as far as I know,

only store two. Default is pretty much screen resolution. When you upload,

you can select a higher resolution, which it will remember for later uploads.

It looks like in high quality mode, FB stores, and allows downloads at,

2048x1362. I am not sure what ordinary quality is, I always use high quality.

 

I believe you select it when you create the album, or maybe when you upload

images to it.

Shutterfly says 2000x1600 is enough up to 20x30:

 

Shutterfly Help Center

THANK YOU SO MUCH

2048 pixels could be 34cm offset printed 1:1 (I'd dare doing that with a BW file, but am not sure if the plate writer is ready to angle its screen dots that way. 4c printing that big should reveal a quality loss) or 24cm printed at the usual quality factor. Everything bigger is a billboard, meant to be seen from a distance, revealing pixelation or insanely huge screen dots up close.

"Photo quality" would end at 6.8".

 

Facebook: Try it yourself (I am not into that stuff): Postprocess the heck out of a file with a lot of details to get it into their required size and compare your result to what you could re-download from FB after offering your big original file to FB's automated downsizing. - I expect the amount of applied sharpening to vary.

Make up your mind how obvious differences are and if they matter for your business & reputation, at all. - Looks on social media are hard to judge. Very few people browse them on calibrated screens. To get a rough idea, I'd display the image on any suitable device I have, side by side.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Some time ago, I sent my parents 16x20 prints of our kids, mostly head shot, so

bigger than life size. They are the size to view from across the room.

Download the free Irfanview software. Then you can resize your images very easily and create as many different sized images as needed for whatever purpose.

 

There's really not much point in uploading 5 or 6 megapixel images to Facebook or the like.

...but I cant ask her because I am taking photos same as her in a same city,

What has being in the same city got to do with anything?

 

If you want good quality large prints, then you need a camera with a decent lens that takes a lot of megapixels. Those large images can then be easily downsized for use online - it's very simple.